Fr. Raymond Sabbouh (Greek Catholic archdiocese in Aleppo) works with the church’s relief office: “ I’ve been working in the Family to Family program since 2018, and in my opinion, it is very important to support our remained families financially, the war has turned many families to become under the poverty line, this had a huge impact on the quality of these families' lives, who were often deprived even from the basic needs”.
It's worthy to mention that the Family to Family program targets the most in need, like families with larger number of members or only provider, and others with special conditions like widows, and the largest percentage in the Syrian community; the elderly who don’t usually have a source of income, and at the same time they often have medical expenses, in addition to the standard living costs which are in constant increase. “the continuity of such programs is very crucial in supporting our families specially with the economic situation deterioration, a lot of families are still in need of this aid and the number is in constant increase and the church wants to help them all, but with the limited resources the church always welcomes any additional help from donors to be able to reach more families”.
Fr. Raymond who had many other experiences in relief projects; targeting the displaced who were settled in schools from the start of the Syrian crisis, also mentions the importance of the micro projects implemented by the hope center is as equal as the relief programs, because eventually such programs are conducted to improve the financial situation of the Syrian families, whether it was by direct cash aids or by creating job opportunities.
